What these sorrows were, Paul's account of his own experience shows (Ac 20^^'^^ 2 Co P^" 6^'^" 1123-33. (,f_ jiq 8^36)_ This experience is regarded as a sharing of Christ's sufferings (2 Co P, 1 P 4^^), and even as a completion of that suffering for the good of the Church (Col 1^). ' Paul does not claim to fill up the defects in Christ's earthlj^ suffer- ing or in the sufferings of the Church, but in the sufferings which he has to endure in his flesh, which are Christ's sufferings, because he and Christ are one ' (Peake, EGT, ' Col.,' 1903, p. 515). Suffer- ing is a means of entering into closer fellowship with Christ (Ph 3^°). As suffering was a condition of perfecting Christ Himself for His work (He 210. 14.15 415 58.9 728)^ gQ ^Iso it pcrfccts Christian character if properly endured (Ito 5^, 1 Th P, He 10^, 1 P 5^°). It is to be regarded not as penal, but as chastening (He 12'-", Ja l--* 5^^). It can- not separate from the love of God (Ro S^'-^^), and it prepares for, and secures, the glory hereafter (Eph 3'*, Rev 7'^), with which it is not worthy to be compared (Ro 8^^), since the companions of Christ's sufferings will also be the partners of His reign (Ro 817, 2 Co P, Ph 3»«, 2 Ti 2"-i3, i P 4^3). Of all evils death is regarded as the greatest, and in Paul we find a painful shrinking from it (2 Co S'^^) ; ac- cordingly, it is evident how precious a comfort was the Christian hope of immortality and resurrection (Ro 8"''^). Since death is regarded as the penalty of sin (Ro 512-21 6^1-23, 1 Co 15-i- - 56)^ tj^e salvation in Christ includes deliverance from death for the believer, and finally the abolition of death (1 Co 1521-28, 2 Ti po) and all other evils (Rev 2P). Behind death, sin, and all evil, the Apostolic Church saw the devil and other powers of wicked- ness (Eph 427, 1 Th 3«, He 2", Ja 4^ 1 P 5^ 1 Jn 5^^, Rev 12^), and accordingly Christ's work, especially His death (Col 2i*), Avas regarded as a victory over all evil powers (1 Jn 3^).
This teaching is for the most part experimental and practical, and can still minister comfort and encouragement to the Christian believer. There are two speculative elements in it which modern Christian faith cannot unquestioninglj' accept — the connexion of death with sin as its penalty, and the existence of the devil and other evil powers. As
regards the first point, the writer ventures to re- peat a few sentences he has written elsewhere. ' It is generally admitted that death is a natural necessity for animal organisms such as man's, and that before man was in the world death prevailed. It seems vain to justify Paul by speculations such as these : that God anticipating sin introduced death into the natural order as a penalty already prepared for sin, or that, had man preserved his innocence, he might have risen above this natural necessity. Paul's interest is primarily in the moral character and the religious consciousness. What he was concerned with Avas man's sense of the mystery and dread of the desolation of death, man's looking for judgment after death. In such totality, including Avhat man thinks of, and feels about, death, surely Paul's view of the connexion between sin and death is not altogether false. It is man's sense of guilt that invests death with its terror (1 Co 15^^). Nor are we warranted in say- ing that conscience here is playing tricks on man, frightening him with illusions. If there be indeed a moral order in the world, an antagonism of God to sin, and if, as there is reason to believe, there is a moral continuity between this life and the next, such a change as death is may be conceived as fraught Avith moral significance, as introducing the soul into such conditions as have been determined by the judgment of God on the moral character of this life' (Studies of Paul and his Gospel, 1911, pp. 146-7). As regards the second point, one sentence regarding Paul Avill suffice. ' In his cosmology, angelology, and demonology, as Avell as his eschat- ology, he remains essentially JeAvish' (q;>. cit. p. 17) ; and this is equally true of the Avhole Apostolic Church. Christian faith need not burden itself Avith this load of Jewish beliefs.
There are tAvo passages in Avhich Paul attempts a theodicy (Ro 8*^-2^ and 9-11), the first dealing Avith Nature and the second Avith human history. In the first passage he attributes to Nature con- sciousness of, and a dissatisfaction Avith, its present imperfection — a desire for, and an expectation of, its completion. He includes Nature in man's griev- ous disaster, but also in his glorious destiny. As by the sin he has committed he has brought misery, so by the grace he avLU receive he Avill impart bless- ing. We are unable to accept ' Paul's account of the origin of physical evil as altogether due to man's sin. There can, hoAveA^er, be no doubt that man has a vital, organic relation to his environment. The evolution of the Avorld and the development of humanity are not independent but connected pro- cesses. If Ave are Avarranted in believing in the pro- gress of the race, we are justified in hoping for a correspondent and consequent transformation of the universe. For the perfect man Ave may expect the perfect home' (Romaics [Century Bible, 1901], p. 193). In the second passage Ave are not here con- cerned Avith the argument as a Avhole, but only with ■ Paul's conclusion, that, as the unbelief of the Jews has opened the door for the faith of the Gentiles, so the gathering in of the Gentiles Avill lead to the restoration of the Jcavs. ' For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all ' (Ro 1 p2). Without ascribing to Paul on the ground of this and similar passages a dogmatic universalism, against which tliere is contrary evi- dence throughout the NT, we may assign to the Apostolic Church the hope of the final victory of Christ over all evil. The apostolic attitude toAvards the problem of evil cannot be described as optimism, for the reality of sin and pain is too seriously and sympathetically recognizetl, nor as 'pessimism, for tne possibility of redemption is too confidently and persuasively urged, but it may be s])oken of as Tueliorism, iox it has the faith Avhich claims a present salvation for every believer, and the hope